Dark Heritage
an excerpt

“Emaline dear, please relax you are making me anxious.” her aunt looked indeed a little more anxious than normal so she took another sip of her tea and sat back into the chair, its cushions cradling her body welcomingly. “I have been meaning to tell you the family history, but I haven’t quite been able to find the right time.” Aunt Gertie looked a little discomfited at this admission. Her general rule was straightforwardness, but when talking about this topic she had always been hesitant. Emaline stayed silent, waiting breathlessly for what she had waited weeks to hear. “When I was a little girl your grandmother and I were told a great secret that we were sworn not to repeat. It seemed strange at the time to little girls to be told a secret and then forbidden to mention it again. All we wanted to do was talk about it, but if we even mentioned it we were punished severely. Your Grandmother and I came up with plan to talk about it in secret. You know how children are Emaline, secretive or giggling all the time. Our parents were never sure what we were up too, but we knew that if we wanted to play make believe with what we heard or talk about it we had to do it clandestinely. As we grew up though the idea of doing it behind our parents backs faded and we stopped talking about it too. I know that neither of us has talked to anyone fully and believe me we have been propositioned many times by publishers to tell the story. The only have a small part of the family history and that was only what my parents and their parents wanted the public to know. What I am about to tell you must remain secret. There are people out there that do know and would hurt you or all of us for the knowledge.” Taking a sip of tea Aunt Gertie paused just long enough to make Emaline wonder what she was talking about. Secrets? Enough to hurt the family for? What was she going on about? “I see the questions you have in your eyes Emaline. I don’t blame you for wondering what an old bat like me is talking about. No, dear please don’t say anything yet. I’m going against everything I’ve been taught telling you this, but I’m afraid that as I get older I might forget some of the details and I have to pass it on. You know that I love my sons very much and can even tolerate the women they have as wives most of the time, but they don’t have the searching spirit you do dear. This story spans hundreds of years and has many secrets tied to us and to others of more sinister ideals. My parents met here in the United States when they were in their twenties. The times were tumultuous during that period and we had to keep moving around to head off pursuit. Yes, the family was being sought. We originally came from England if you remember your family genealogy? My parents were born and met here in the states. My father was born with the surname Hyde, but what you don’t know and what must remain secret is that our original family name was Woodwidge.” This revelation shocked Emaline out of the sleepy daze that her aunt’s voice had sent her into. “We have a different name? Why.. What was the reason for changing?” Emaline’s shocked statement elicited no surprise from her Aunt. She smiled and continued. “I expected this reaction from you, but please be patient. I will explain all before the night is through. There were many reasons why the family changed its name, but the most important for you to understand, was the family was in great danger and my great-grandparents decided it was in the best interests of the family to do so. First though, we come from a long line of English nobility. You looked shocked? I remember as a girl when my parents sat your grandmother and I down and passed the secret on to us. The family came to the New World, as they called it, in 1892, the year my grandfather was born. It was a rushed plan to flee the country of our origins and my great grandmother had to leave much behind that she cherished, including her husband. They were never together again sadly, and that is the family mystery, where did he go? There were snippets of news occasionally I was told by my grandmother, but no concrete news about what happened to him. Okay, I have been wandering around the main topic. Alric Godric Woodwidge was born in 1728 to a nice noble family with good standing in the crown’s eyes. King George II was interested in the people and the family were very altruistic and helped out the poor as well as provided for the prosperity of the Kingdom by farming and having a thriving merchant fleet. It is said Alric was not happy being a vasal to the King and wanted to go out and try his hand at more adventurous things, but the family was ardent that he become a solicitor. A staid profession if there ever was one he wrote in his journals. Oh, yes we do have some of his journals. The family has a tradition of writing down their thoughts and adventures real or otherwise. Why do you think your mother was so adamant that you write everything down. I hope that you still do dear. It is the only way the future generations know what happened now. When he was a young man he did do what he parents expected of him, he went to university and became a solicitor. At twenty he was wild and went out and drank and womanized everyday. It is shocking now, but back then it was expected from a yound noblemen to act in such a way. He wrote that he quickly grew disillusioned with it and left he parents home without a word and ran off to the docks one night and drifted away with the riff-raff of the wharves. His parents didn’t know what came of him until later. He was a miserable wretch four years later who came back to the threashold of his family and begged forgiveness for his youthful transgressions. He put a black mark on the families honor, but they couldn’t turn him away even with all the trouble he brought back with him. It is known that he brought back a trunk from his voyages that he kept locked and secreted away from prying eyes. He wrote that he told his parents it was to remind him of his dark days and they left it at that. That chest is what has plagued our family ever since.” Her aunt’s vague explanation’s had confused Emaline. The wind still whipped across the basement windows and she waited for her aunt to start talking again and she hoped it was clearer. Feeling bad at her attitude toward what her aunt was saying when she started talking again her attention was fully upon her.
“I’m sorry dear, this is harder than I thought and I have not been very clear. Your great-great-grandfather was in a duel with a nobleman named Veramont. It seems that the chest your great-great-great-great-grandfather had brought back from his days pirating contained sensitive materials that this man wanted. He had used threats to no avail and finally in his insanity he demanded a duel to determine ownership of the chest and its contents. The family had always known from the journals about the secret society that searched for the chest’s contents over the years since it had been taken. From what I remember, he was on the pirate ship The Blackguard when they attacked a merchant vessel, The Trinity, its contents were eagerly awaited by this society and when it was stolen that night they were very angry. It took many years before they discovered who among the pirates actually had the articles in question and when our grandfather many times removed was discovered to be the pirate Terence Blackstone, that was his pirate name and the family kept this hidden. It was an easy way for the pirate to return to normal society without having to spend time in the gallows or be hung for piracy in those days. By that time 12 years had passed and Alric had settled down to his solicitor job and had even married a nice older maid named Patricia Norman and they had a son, Bradley Stuart Woodwidge. The chest by this time was well hidden and he was not about to give its location away. He was kidnapped and tortured, but he did not relinquish the knowledge and was able to escape with the aid of his friends and a few of his old pirate acquaintances who had also retired from that field and taken respectable jobs. He was badly shaken by this turn of events and swore to himself that this society, the Atlantean Resurgence, would never get their hands on what they claimed was theirs. He then decided to hide the chest somewhere where it wouldn’t be easily found and passed the knowledge down to one member of the family who could be trusted with the secret. Trusted to keep the secret and trusted to never use the knowledge it contained.”
“Aunt? If you don’t mind the interruption. What could this chest contain that would be so important to the society, the Atlanteans?” she had been leaning in enraptured by this unexpected bit of family history and felt honored to be the one her aunt trusted with the secret.
“Patience. I was getting to that dear. This bit of knowledge is quite startling. It seems that the chest that was stolen from that merchant ship contained a map of a lost land and a location to a hidden cache of treasure. I know it sounds fantastical, but that is what I was told. No one in the family has actually seen the map or the chest for that matter. There are clues to its location throughout the journals left behind by our male forebears. Myself, my mother, and my sister and now you are the only girls to have been told this tale. Usually, the men in the family are entrusted with the secret, but as it would be now girls were born instead boys. Lucky us, huh?” she laughed at her bit of humor and checked on the storm outside. She stood by the window wrapped in a shawl looking out at the raging storm. Her slight form looked so insignificant next to the window. She walked back her chair, checking on the tea before she sat back down. “It seems that one of the journals from our great wat discovered in the library at the manor. It was hidden in a secret alcove behind on of the books of poetry. It seems that the family did not have the appretiation for poetry that you and I share, but they did aquire the books because it was the rage to quote random pieces in conversation. I think it was to look important dear. We on the other hand read and recite because we love the art. Anyway, somehow word of this journal got out. It was known by your great-great-grandfather’s time that Alric had been Terence Blackstone and the family was shamed for many years. It was told to me that Edmund’s father and grandfather spent many years hard work rebuilding the families good reputation after the crown heard about the families black sheep. The crown does not easily forgive even if the deed happened over a 100 years in the past. One of the servants listened in on the reading of the journal and was paid handsomely for any information about the chest if it was mentioned in the telling. It turns out the secret society had been looking over these many years for any information they could find on the location of othe pirates. They new about Woodwidge, but no other knowledge existed about the other men. It was assumed he was the only person of noble birth or of important standing that was recorded. All the other poor souls were just the dregs of society. There was just the mention of the chest in the journal not its location, but it was enough to enrage the society. They now knew that Woodwidge had been in posession of the chest when they had tortured him years previously. The fact that they knew he had had the chest sent the current generation of young men after the family. That was the reason why our family had to flee the manor and the country at that time. The threats against our family were dire and since the line had dwindled down to Edmund and his newly born son he didn’t want to secret to be exterminated by over zealous men and their insane search for a chest and map to treasure that was probably just a farie tale. There has never been actual proof Atlantis ever existed, but this society’s very tenant is the search and possession of any Atlantean artifact. They claim actual lineage to these Atlanteans and that makes them very dangerous. I have searched this Internet at the library and have found traces of them still in existence. They keep to themselves and put on a good face, but they still search, going after any lead they find whether it is real or not. I worry that the family will be found now in today’s time. We have moved so far away from the old family manor house that we don’t really have a physical presence there anymore. It is kept in the name only and servants are paid to keep it in good condition in case we decide to claim it once again. When we came here to the States we adopted a new name, Hyde. Of course, grandmother never married again, she knew in her heart that Edmund was out there somewhere and she would never take another husband just in case. Edmund Woodwidge II was born in England, but came over to the States with his mother Maura Esteen, and they changed their name to Hyde. It is a good unassuming English name and they hoped to blend in with the people coming to the states for a better life. They were entrusted to the care of Vincent Milay, a manservant that was trusted with the care of the family until the Lord could return. He spent his days earning money for the family by clerking in an office and farming. He was a gentle man and treated our family like his own. He never had any of his own family so it was an easy transition to make. He, of course, knew nothing about the reason behind the move, but suspected foul deed were being perpetrated upon the family by persons unknown to him. As far as the rest of the family is concerned we moved to the states for the same reason as the other people who did. We were forced to move by the lack of funds, when in reality the family is very rich. The wealth you have been accustomed too did not all come from the frugal and savvy business acumens of our fathers, no, it was mostly old money that we took with us. Trunks filled with valuables were brought from the old country and sold or sold over time. Many of our treasures were sold to keep food in the mouths and give us a good foot to stand on in society. Now of course the family is independently wealthy in its own right and the money that is in CD’s and banks here and in England does not have to be touched. It is waiting for the Lord or Lady, you, to come claim the Manor and our title. The Earl of Woodwidge, that was who we were. We still keep the old title. Somehow, I never really understood it all, we still own all the land and the title even in the absence of an actual member of the family there. Somehow my great-grandfather was able to do a deal with the crown and put forth funds to upkeep the lands. I believe he had friends who were loyal to him, but in the back of my mind I always wondered if he stayed in England to take care of the finer points before he either died or went off adventuring himself. There have been clues in his own journals which he sent to my grandmother before he mysteriously stopped corresponding, that he had found the chest and was actually looking for the said treasure. It was never confirmed though because he never sent any other correspondence after that once journal. Except for a strange letter that was sent after my great-grandmother passed away. It was sent by another party and it was very cryptic. It mentioned searching Egypt and the Peruvian highlands, but never any mention about the chest, but it was always implied that he had used the map and talisman said to be in the chest. We all assume though that the chest is actually hidden in the manor itself, thought the family had searched for years to no avail. Alric was very throughough in his hiding place and to this day it is said to be there, in the original place, unknown to anybody but his ghost. I know that the story is hit and miss, but I believe the journals are in the attic space in, very proper I think, a chest. I’ll give you the key to the lock in the morning after we recuperate from our night awake listening to the storm. It doesn’t look like it is getting any better so I suggest we get some sleep. The cots are in the corner, if you would, please pull them out and set them up. I’ll get the blankets and pillows I have stashed down here somewhere.” She got up and went to check the closet for the hidden pillows and blankets. Emaline thought about all that she had learned tonight. It was amazing and she still couldn’t believe it all. She knew the family history was going to be interesting, she hadn’t expected anything less, but all of this about maps and treasure and Atlantis, she couldn’t digest it. “I need sleep.” mumbling this she dragged out the cots, unfolded them and watched her aunt put the blankets on them. Grabbing a pillow off the floor she sighed gratefully into to it and even though the cot was not the most comfortable bed in the world she fell asleep even before her aunt has sat down on the cot.